Three Vegetables To Help Your Eyesight

Amazingly enough, carrots did not make it on this short list of vegetables that protect or improve vision. While it is true that carrots are full of vitamins that can help your eye sight, there are other vegetables that offer better sources.

The three vegetables we want to discuss with you today are known for their nutritional values. They offer benefits to many parts of your body along with your eyes.

Kale

You may, or may not, be familiar with this vegetable. It’s a member of the cabbage family and studies have shown that this one vegetable is a good source of many of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

It is a low calorie source of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, and a wide range of trace minerals such as manganese, dietary fiber, copper, and potassium.

When you consider that one cup of cooked kale can provide 88.8% of vitamin C, you can see why it has a place on our eye healthy vegetable list. Vitamin C is especially important because the body cannot store this vitamin.

Kale is also a wonderful source of vitamin A. Kale is naturally rich in concentrated beta-carotene which our body uses to produce vitamin A. This combination of vitamins and beta-carotene can help protect your eye from the development of cataracts.

Spinach

Popeye’s favorite food is not just good for cartoon strength. In a survey conducted by the American Optometric Association in 2008 it was found that less than one third of people considered diet as an important factor in eye health. Of those who did try to eat foods good for their vision, most thought that carrots were the best choice.

Carrots are good, but spinach is better. Spinach is one of a variety of dark green leafy vegetable that contain lutein and zeaxanthin. This is important because they are antioxidants that are essential to good eye health.

Spinach contains beta-carotene just like carrots do, but it is higher in antioxidants. Try adding one cup of cooked spinach to your diet 4 times a week.

Yes, we did say cooked! For once it is easier for your body to absorb the nutrients from a cooked food instead of raw. For people who don’t care for the taste of cooked spinach, try sprinkling it with a little lemon juice or adding it to an omelet, or a quiche.

When you consider the benefits it offers in preventing age-related macular degeneration and cataracts, you’ll find that there are lots of ways to serve it.

Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potato is another unsung hero of the vegetable world. Most people only think of sweet potatoes at holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas. This is such a waste of a perfectly good vegetable that contains amazing amounts of antioxidants.

The antioxidants in sweet potatoes work in our bodies to destroy free radicals which can cause problems such as cancer, degenerative eye diseases, and heart disease.

The antioxidant value in the sweet potatoes is almost three times higher in the skin of the potato. You might want to consider substituting sweet potato in your favorite potato skin recipe.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with these vegetables. The internet is a great source of recipes for all kinds of foods. You don’t have to sit down to a plate of plain vegetables in order to get all the good nutrients from them.

Just add them to casseroles or dishes that you normally make. When you consider the benefits they offer to your eye health a little experimentation isn’t that much of a risk.

About Orlin Sorensen

My vision started to get blurry as a young teenager. Soon I was wearing glasses for just about everything. This was a hard blow for me because I had always dreamed of becoming a U.S. Navy fighter pilot which required perfect vision without glasses or surgery. But I wasn't ready to give up on my dreams, so I looked into every possible alternative which led me to eye exercises. Through daily vision training and eye exercises, I improved my vision from 20/85 to 20/20 and passed the Navy's visual acuity test. In fact Men's Health declared this one of the "Greatest Comebacks of All Time!" Now, I'm sharing exactly how I did it with the program that helped me so people like you can improve your vision safely and naturally, without glasses, contacts or laser surgery.

Very interesting. Thank you. I live in South Africa. Our sweet potatoes have white or off white flesh and pink skins. You mentioned the outside colour doesn’t matter but does the inside colour matter? The sweet potatoes/yams of South America and California (I don’t know about the rest of the USA) are orange inside. How would that affect the nutritional value?

kale is a leafy green. one thing i like to do with it is parboil it and add it to scrambled eggs. or, you can use it as you would spinach, i.e. as a side dish. kale just has tougher leaves. writing w/one hand – other is in a sling. hope that helps.